Retelling the Past in Contemporary Greek Literature, Film, and Popular Culture

Retelling the Past in Contemporary Greek Literature, Film, and Popular Culture
Author: Trine Stauning Willert
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 291
Release: 2019-01-22
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1498563392

This book deals with historical consciousness and its artistic expressions in contemporary Greece since 1989 from the point of view that contemporary Greeks have been faced with the contradictions between on the one hand a glorious, world-famous yet distant past and, on the other, a traumatic contemporary history of wars, expulsions, civil strife and political and economic crises. Such clashes of imaginary identifications and collective traumas call for interpretations not only from historians but also from artists and storytellers. Therefore, the chapters in this volume explore the ways in which sensitive and creative perspectives of art approach and appropriate history in Greece. Through a rich collection of analytical case studies and creative reflections on Greece’s past, present, and future this volume presents the reader with the ways a set of contemporary Greek storytellers in different genres have incorporated previously under-explored or little-known themes, events, and epochs in modern Greek history showing how the past, by being interpreted and represented in the present, can teach us a lot about contemporary Greek society. The themes that form the point of departure for the stories told or retold cover various significant components of Greek history and culture such as ancient myths, the Ottoman period, the Greek War of Independence and the Greek Civil War, but also less prominent or known aspects of Greek history such as the Greek Enlightenment, the long and tragic history of Greek Jewry, and migration to and from Greece.

Crisis, Movement, Strategy: The Greek Experience

Crisis, Movement, Strategy: The Greek Experience
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 314
Release: 2018-09-04
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9004280898

In 2010 Greece entered a period of extreme austerity measures, but also of intense struggles and protests. Social and political crisis led to tectonic shifts in the political landscape and the rise to power of SYRIZA. However, despite the impressive expression of resistance in the 2015 referendum, the EU-IMF-ECB ‘Troika’ managed to impose the continuation of the same politics of austerity, privatisations, and neoliberal reforms. This social and political sequence poses important theoretical and analytical questions regarding capitalist crisis, public debt, European integration, political crisis, the new forms of protest and social movements, and the rise of neo-fascist parties. It also brings forward all the open questions regarding radical left-wing strategy today. The contributions in this volume attempt from different perspectives to deal with some of these theoretical and strategic questions using the Greek experience as a case study. Contributors include: George Economakis, Stavros Mavroudeas, Ioannis Zisimopoulos, Alexios Anastasiadis, Maria Markaki, George Androulakis, Despina Paraskeva-Veloudogianni, Eirini Gaitanou, Alexandros Chrysis, Euclid Tsakalotos, Spyros Sakellaropoulos, Panagiotis Sotiris, Giannis Kouzis, Yiorgos Vassalos, Christos Laskos, Angelos Kontogiannis-Mandros.

Ours Once More

Ours Once More
Author: Michael Herzfeld
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Total Pages: 220
Release: 2020-06-16
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1789207231

When this work – one that contributes to both the history and anthropology fields – first appeared in 1982, it was hailed as a landmark study of the role of folklore in nation-building. It has since been highly influential in reshaping the analysis of Greek and European cultural dynamics. In this expanded edition, a new introduction by the author and an epilogue by Sharon Macdonald document its importance for the emergence of serious anthropological interest in European culture and society and for current debates about Greece’s often contested place in the complex politics of the European Union.

Tense-Switching in Classical Greek

Tense-Switching in Classical Greek
Author: Arjan A. Nijk
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 333
Release: 2022-02-17
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 1316517152

Explores the relationship between the present tense and the conceptualisation of 'presence' in Greek from a cognitive perspective.

Consumption and Gender in Southern Europe since the Long 1960s

Consumption and Gender in Southern Europe since the Long 1960s
Author: Kostis Kornetis
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2016-02-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 1472596293

Consumption and Gender in Southern Europe since the Long 1960s offers an in-depth analysis of the relationship between gender and contemporary consumer cultures in post-authoritarian Southern European societies. The book sees a diverse group of international scholars from across the social sciences draw on 14 original case studies to explore the social and cultural changes that have taken place in Spain, Portugal and Greece since the 1960s. This is the first scholarly attempt to look at the countries' similar political and socioeconomic experiences in the shift from authoritarianism to democracy through the intersecting topics of gender and consumer culture. This comparative analysis is a timely contribution to the field, providing much needed reflection on the social origins of the contemporary economic crisis that Spain, Portugal and Greece have simultaneously experienced. Bringing together past and present, the volume elaborates on the interplay between the current crisis and the memory of everyday life activities, with a focus on gender and consumer practices. Consumption and Gender in Southern Europe since the Long 1960s firmly places the Southern European region in a wider European and transatlantic context. Among the key issues that are critically discussed are 'Americanization', the 'cultural revolution of the Long 1960s' and representations of the 'Model Mrs Consumer' in the three societies. This is an important text for anyone interested in the modern history of Southern Europe or the history of gender and consumer culture in modern Europe more generally.

Militant Around the Clock?

Militant Around the Clock?
Author: Nikolaos Papadogiannis
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Total Pages: 342
Release: 2015-05-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1782386459

During the 1970s, left-wing youth militancy in Greece intensified, especially after the collapse of the military dictatorship in 1974. This is the first study of the impact of that political activism on the leisure pursuits and sexual behavior of Greek youth, analyzing the cultural politics of left-wing organizations alongside the actual practices of their members. Through an examination of Maoists, Socialists, Euro-Communists, and pro-Soviet groups, it demonstrates that left-wing youth in Greece collaborated closely with comrades from both Western and Eastern European countries in developing their political stances. Moreover, young left-wingers in Greece appropriated American cultural products while simultaneously modeling some of their leisure and sexual practices on Soviet society. Still, despite being heavily influenced by cultures outside Greece, left-wing youth played a major role in the reinvention of a Greek “popular tradition.” This book critically interrogates the notion of “sexual revolution” by shedding light on the contradictory sexual transformations in Greece to which young left-wingers contributed.

Modern Greece

Modern Greece
Author: John S. Koliopoulos
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2009-10-27
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781444314830

Modern Greece: A History since 1821 is a chronologicalaccount of the political, economic, social, and cultural history ofGreece, from the birth of the Greek state in 1821 to 2008 by twoleading authorities. Pioneering and wide-ranging study of modern Greece, whichincorporates the most recent Greek scholarship Sets the history of modern Greece within the context of a broadgeo-political framework Includes detailed portraits of leading Greek politicians Provides in-depth considerations on the profound economic andsocial changes that have occurred as a result of Greece’s EUmembership

Abortion and Contraception in Modern Greece, 1830-1967

Abortion and Contraception in Modern Greece, 1830-1967
Author: Violetta Hionidou
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 371
Release: 2020-05-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 3030414906

The book examines the history of abortion and contraception in Modern Greece from the time of its creation in the 1830s to 1967, soon after the Pill became available. It situates the history of abortion and contraception within the historiography of the fertility decline and the question of whether the decline was due to adjustment to changing social conditions or innovation of contraceptive methods. The study reveals that all methods had been in use for other purposes before they were employed as contraceptives. For example, Greek women were employing emmenagogues well before fertility was controlled; they did so in order to ‘put themselves right’ and to enhance their fertility. When they needed to control their fertility, they employed abortifacients, some of which were also emmenagogues, while others had been used as expellants in earlier times. Curettage was also employed since the late nineteenth century as a cure for sterility; once couples desired to control their fertility curettage was employed to procure abortion. Thus couples did not need to innovate but rather had to repurpose old methods and materials to new birth control methods. Furthermore, the role of physicians was found to have been central in advising and encouraging the use of birth control for ‘health’ reasons, thus facilitating and speeding fertility decline in Greece. All this occurred against the backdrop of a state and a church that were at times neutral and at other times disapproving of fertility control.

Contingent Countryside

Contingent Countryside
Author: Susan Buck Sutton
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Total Pages: 424
Release: 2000
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780804733151

The essays in this volume are united by their attention to the many ways in which residents of Greece's southern Argolid peninsula—the focus of more ethnographic and ethnohistorical study than any other comparable region of Greece—have attempted to shelter, feed, and advance the economic situation of their families over the last three centuries.